Your Car Donation Can Help Children

When you give your car to charity, it can help children in many different ways. Depending on the type of charity to which you donate your car, you may be helping to fund important programs or you may directly affect a poor child's life by making it possible for a parent to work. Here's what you should know about car donation charities.

Direct Donations vs. Car Donation for Sale

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There are two different kinds of car donation charities. The first type accepts donations of cars that can be repaired, then gives or sells them at a nominal amount to families in need. The families must meet very specific guidelines, including a requirement that the car will allow a person in the family to get or keep a job. The second type of program accepts car donations of working automobiles or those that require very little work and sells them at a profit, which is donated to a children's charity or used to fund the charity's own work.

Donating Your Car for a Charity's Use

There is a third category of car donation - donating a car to a charity for the charity's own use. For example, you may donate your van to a local children's charity which outfits it with safety features and uses the van to transport children to recreational programs, or to pick up and deliver meals to low-income families.

Tax Treatment of Car Donations

The type of charity donation is important because it affects the amount of the deduction you can make on your taxes. Depending on the use made of your car after you donate it, you may be able to deduct its full Blue Book value from your gross income or only the amount that the charity realized when selling your car. Before you sign any papers, be sure that you understand exactly what you'll be able to deduct from your taxes when you file. Unless the car has a very low value to begin with, you'd do best to consult your tax accountant or a financial planner to help you decide the best way to donate your car to charity.

What Happens When You Donate Your Car

In most cases, donating your car to a charity for children is a simple process on your end. You call the charity and let them know that you want to give your car to charity. A representative of the car donation agency will meet with you and give you an appraisal of the car's worth. He'll also bring paperwork for you to sign. The paperwork is your receipt and should include the name and address of the charity, the value of your donation and any other information that your state and the federal government require the charity to collect. If the charity intends to sell the car and use the proceeds for their charitable works, they'll explain to you when and how they'll notify you of the final selling price of your car, which will dictate the amount you can deduct as a charitable donation on your taxes.

Your Car Donation Can Help Children

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the world's MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web.
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